Karen's Copy of Pip Squeak: Mouse in Shining Armor by Robert Kraus and Richard Oldden

Even more impressive than a copy of Pip Squeak: Mouse in Shining Armor (1971) personalized with a drawing by illustrator Richard Oldden—such as we saw here in yesterday's post—is a copy personalized with sketches by both Oldden and the book's author Robert Kraus. Oldden's drawing for reader Karen featured Pip Squeak with his sword raised as well as Hopper, the mouse's toad. Kraus, himself a prolific New Yorker cartoonist and magazine cover illustrator, provided the book's new owner with a somewhat generic drawing of a rabbit holding a flower.

This leads one to wonder how Kraus decided whether to illustrate his own stories or assign them to others? His obituary dated August 30, 2001, by Myrna Oliver of the Los Angeles Times, and cited by Wikipedia on its Robert Kraus page, sheds a little light here:

A decade later, the budding author decided to establish a children's book publishing house, dubbing it Windmill and installing himself as president. His idea was to ask artist friends to create the books—but he soon learned they were more interested in illustrating than writing.

So he wrote the stories, albeit painfully, recalling: "I love drawing . . . Giving my stories to somebody else was like giving away a child."

t

Robert Kraus and Richard Oldden
Biblio listing accessed October 25, 2024

https://www.biblio.com/book/pip-squeak-mouse-shining-armor-robert/d/1624075172

04781

Best Copy: The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs was published in 2012, a year before the similarly-named feline collection also from Random House. The Brattle Book Shop in Massachusetts has a copy of both "big" books, each signed by several contributors. The cartoonists who signed the Dogs book are Lee Lorenz, Bob Mankoff, Roz Chast, Victoria Roberts and Jules Feiffer. A number of writers also signed alongside their contributions: Roddy Doyle, Ian Frazier, Malcolm Gladwell (who also penned the foreword), Adam Gopnik, Jonathan Lethem, and poet Charles Simic. There must have been a launch party or some in-house celebration for so many signatures to be readily obtained, one would think. The price: $200.

Spot drawing
Otto Soglow

Image added September 2, 2023

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs
Biblio listing accessed August 5, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/big-new-yorker-book-dogs-gladwell/d/1507328807?placement=search_results_list

Note:  "Best Copy" is a new designation for the blog, but I think this multiply-signed copy of The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs fits the bill. As with yesterday's post about The Big New Yorker Book of Cats, this is subjectively the best copy of the Dogs book I've seen, but I acknowledge that others may have seen even better. I hope readers with access to such copies, if materially different from this one, will pass along some images.

04403

Sight Unseen: Martha Russ's Copy of Childproof by Roz Chast

Signed cartoon books are better than unsigned ones, but a book by a cartoonist is most interesting when the author has drawn something in it, just as a book by a novelist is most interesting when the author has written something in it. Unfortunately, a stock image of a book cover tells us next to nothing when the page of particular interest is on the inside. 

Yet many booksellers continue to illustrate their listings with such images, even when the book has some attribute that makes it unique. Roz Chast's collection Childproof: Cartoons About Parents and Children (1997) is a worthwhile read, but it is surely a more interesting object when signed, inscribed, and embellished "with a little drawing of a child." It has become far more difficult to get Ms. Chast to doodle in her books at signings in recent decades, although she does make the occasional exception. For now at least, the used book market is the most reliable way of obtaining a small Chast drawing of a face in one of her collections, although one may have to purchase it sight unseen, as I did.

Roz Chast
AbeBooks listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.abebooks.com/comics/Childproof-Cartoons-Parents-Children-Roz-Chast/31532715302/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=readmore

To my mind, fifty dollars plus $4.50 shipping is a reasonable price to pay for such a rarity. But, wait! The bookseller, Jero Books and Templet Co. of Santa Monica, has the very same book listed on Biblio at a 30% discount. A deal! My mama told me, you better shop around—and I listened to the song lyrics.

Roz Chast
Biblio listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/childproof-cartoons-about-parents-children-roz/d/1548044232?placement=search_results_list

The format of the Sight Unseen posts hasn't changed. I pay out real money for a book I haven't seen an image of but think has a reasonable chance of being worthwhile. When it arrives, I take my own photographs of the book and present my findings here. As expected, my snapshot of the cover doesn't add anything to the stock image.

The title page, though, seems to be everything I expected:

I conclude, then, that this hard-to-find book is well worth $39.50 postpaid. Of course, other opinions are always welcome.

04365